Winter Weather Whacks Back Offices: Xtend

Spring may be nigh, but winter weather is still busting out all over. Just ask Xtend Inc., a Michigan-based provider of back-office services that has provided business continuity services for more than two dozen credit unions in the past few weeks, from the Northeast to the Southwest.

The affected credit unions were in Texas, Illinois, Michigan, New York, Kansas, Alabama and Washington, D.C.

The 180-client CUSO, an affiliate of CU*Answers, said the credit unions needed varying levels of support and backup services that included book-keeping and call center work.

Xtend President Scott Collins said the winter has been the 12-year-old CUSO’s busiest yet.

“We have 37 credit unions that contract us to provide daily bookkeeping services for short-term needs, and many have had more than one day this winter where the weather caused them to close,” he said.

“Our call center agents handle overflow and after-hour member service calls for 34 credit unions,” Collins added. “Weather-related closings have resulted in a significantly higher volume of calls during that same period. It goes without saying that things have really been hopping in our office for the past several weeks.”

More calls for help could be on the way for Xtend and others in the backup business. Two more winter storms are currently marching across the country, the second of which is taking aim for the Southeast, including Atlanta and South Carolina.